


The heart that beats in the ink.

by MarieLamb_B



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: A little angst, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Has NOTHING to do with canon, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Just a little fun, Let's see what's in store as we keep going, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Contain Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 15:17:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19907854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarieLamb_B/pseuds/MarieLamb_B
Summary: When Henry got the invitation of his old friend to visit their old workshop, he sincerely didn't expect a giant machine that only produced ink, much less a glob of it to take the form of a lanky mangled creature!But you know what they say: Curiosity killed the cat.How much could he stand when the strangeness of the studio really consumes him?





	The heart that beats in the ink.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright! You already know the drill: Ink DeMonth = Chance to upload a buncha lot of my projects!
> 
> The day's topic was Ritual, and hooking from it, well, the first chapter of the game was to complete the ritual in order to put the machine at works, no? So is this one ~3~
> 
> I hope you enjoy this, 'cos I pretend this to take a turn slightly different to the usual things I do, for starters, a bit of humor around, toon logic, all that jazz... but I warn you: you've seen my other works, you know I take a turn for the darkest some time or another~
> 
> But while that doesn't happen in here, ENJOY!!
> 
> ♥♥♥

“Alright, Joey. I’m here. Let’s see if we can find what you wanted me to see.”

30 years must have passed for Henry Stein to get some news from his old friend. 30 years of absolute silence between them both, after being rejected by the one he thought would be there for whatever happened. 30 years. And all the letter said was a plea for him to visit the ‘old workshop’. And it was old, indeed.

Henry couldn’t understand why, but the walls, the floor, the posters; everything around looked yellowish, like if they’d left the pipes rust until all the water soaked the wooden boards, letting them to rot. And the dripping sound coming from somewhere didn’t help with the idea. Well, at least with so much humidity it’s not like the place was a fire hazard anymore.

Henry started to walk and tour the rotten place. Surely he didn’t like the creaking floor or the dimmed lights. All of this simply gave him an unnerving sensation. Like those silly teenager movies where a guy went with his girlfriend to and abandoned warehouse to only end up facing the psycho-killer hiding in that place ready to commit another crime. Well, Linda was at home in another state; this was a cartoon studio, not a warehouse; and so far the only person he expected to meet was the man who sent him the letter.

Leaving aside that creepy thought, Henry moved along with nostalgia through the hallways. He found his old desk; there were still some sketches of his old designs! Another room had a projector, and he was somehow surprised by the fact that it still had a reel of a bouncing Bendy animation, one that they made to test the frames and speed of the reel in the tapes; it was weird, Norman always was pretty cautious about their storage and cares.

Some of the walls still held posters almost untainted by the moisture, and Henry was pretty charmed by the illustrations made for those shorts. Yes, he used to be the head animator, but they also had their art department where they designed all that would turn in propaganda for the show; most of them ended in the theaters to announce their showing.

And finally, a room he couldn’t recall. By how it seemed, they must have rearranged some rooms around to build up more space, since it looked like they made a hole in the wall –pretty sure of this since it looked like a makeshift threshold. It leaded to a new hallway filled with pipes and machinery, and finally to a railway that divided its space from a huge shaft with chains hanging from the ceiling.

Curiosity took the best of him, and noticing a lever next to him by the railway, he tried to activate it... only to find its power source was missing. A few glances around and he found a power cell on a shelf by the wall next to the entrance, but this lever needed two. He peeked into the trunk that lied just down the shelf and found the other one.

Putting the batteries on their slots, Henry pulled down the lever. And after a few minutes of gears turning and chains lifting, rising from the darkness of that abys and stopping with a great steam cloud, there it was: the... machine. What was it? Really, he had no idea. He just followed his guts and wanted to see what was hanging from those chains. Probably was what Joey wanted to show him.

Ok, he came, he had seen it... but it felt pretty much empty see that machine without even knowing what it was for. He wanted to know what it did. But the sole lever around was the one that only pulled it up, so he needed to explore more the new area.

After a few turns, he got to a room– also with a makeshift threshold –where six pedestals aligned at the sides of its path to the bottom wall, where a sign up there had written ‘INK MACHINE’ ‘Main Power’. So that machine was an ink machine. And what’s an ink machine anyways? Ok, it’s an animation studio, but they really needed that much ink?

Henry approached to the power level, only to find it didn’t work. Well, that was disappointing... What else could he do?

He started to walk around those weird pedestals; why even were those there? His walk came to a halt when a squeaking noise caught his attention from below him. It was a Bendy doll! Wow, Shawn really got good at the making of these; it even looked like the frame just... behind the pedestal...

Putting two and two together, Henry started to look around the other pedestals, seeing that indeed there were lying under them the items shown it those frames, or at least most of them. He picked up the items, placing in the pedestals right front of their frames. Only missing the inkwell, since the one that should be there was spilled and with not a trace of ink left in the bottle. Also was missing the gear, but he saw one in the same chest he found the power cell back in the machine room. For the ink, probably he’d found more where his old desk was.

Henry headed towards where his old desk was, only to find nothing more than already had. He started to check around, opening a door behind his desk, to end up finding a long room with various desks aligned back of a railway. This indeed was new too.

“Looks like they knocked out a wall or two after I left.” He said already lighting up the obvious. “Guess it took a few people to replace me...”

He stepped down to those desks, mind focused on finding a new inkwell. But he couldn’t help but stare with longing at the Bendy frames that were on the tables. He almost felt like if those little drawing were greeting him; they looked so vivid, so cheerful. That’s the little dancing demon that he created, and no doubt, he was pleased with having to come, even when Joey was nowhere around.

But it’s enough with the cheesy feelings to his toon. He needed to find that darn inkwell.

He looked up, he looked down, looked in and around, but nothing. They were in an animation studio, with a giant ‘ink machine’ in their halls, and already they drank out all the ink that could ever be?

Henry leaned against one of the desk, looking down to a Bendy drawing that was over it.

“Whaddya say, li’l buddy? Any idea?” He funnily asked to that little frame, which curiously had a thoughtful look, with a gloved finger over his mouth and staring somewhere down of it.

Out of instinct, Henry followed the stare of the drawing, and got to find a full inkwell hid down and behind that desk. Gleeful, he picked it up, and so he headed back to the doorway, thanking to the little drawing and passing next to another that held a thumb up.

Henry quickly got the gear from the ink machine room and he was ready to put them on those pedestals in the other room. Why they needed to put these items on pedestals, like some kind of ritual, Henry had no idea, but he found somehow fun the idea; it was like those kinds of riddles that Joey used to put around, ‘to exercise the mind’, he used to say. But not like this looked too cerebral.

Anyways, he put the gear and the inkwell on their spots, and he found himself glad to catch a light that came from the lever, that lamely said ‘Low pressure’. Well, there were pipes, something’s dripping, and he remembered have seen a valve in that room where the bouncing Bendy projection was. So if pressure is what it needed, better give it a try.

He made his way to where he saw the valve, and once there, with a little extra tug, he made it turn. Quite proud of his strength, he stood there for a while as he listened the ink flowing through the pipes, to then hear as they grumbled. Puzzled, he started to look around, only to find right above him a cracked pipe and a shower of ink bathed him.

Well, forget about not being a fire hazard. If ink was what soaked the walls, then the place wouldn’t take too long on be eaten by the flames had a fire taken place...

Trying his best to take off the ink from his face and hands, he mourned a bit the state of his clothing and made his way to where the power level was, hoping for no other task to be done to put on march this strange device.

And glory of glories, the lever showed a beaming ‘Ready’ when he got there! With a hop on his feet, he reached for the lever and pulled it down. And though the lights dimmed as the machinery started to sound all around there, he couldn’t help but feel somehow eager to finally see what the machine did.

He hurried his march, excited to see the product of all those puzzling tasks he did. He leaped the pipe in the floor and got to the railway, eyes wide open in anticipation... but the machine only spat ink, big fat chunks of ink.

That’s it? Really? Actually, what did he waited for? It’s named ‘Ink Machine’! he was already bathed in ink; he didn’t need more of it soaking through his vest.

Heavily disappointed, he turned around, ready to leave. But just when he was reaching the threshold, a thunderous screech made him flinch to a halt, covering his ears. Turning back, he looked with concern that the contraption was no more chucking out globs of ink. The gears were stuck and the entire machine was trembling; it seemed to be clogged.

He approached once again, trying to figure what had the machine in such state from his precarious point of view. Whatever it was, even the chains that held it up rattled quite violently and made the machine swing a notorious tad, each swing with more and more force.

The gears seemed to burn as something smoky started to rise. Oh, no, not a good time for a fire in such place!

But before he could react and abandon the place, a big, viscous and rather solid chunk of ink was spat out, and the force of its ejection made the entire machine to swing from side to side, nearly reaching the walls of the barn-like room. Not just that, but the chunk was expelled so violently that actually made to hit the walls, bouncing from side to side in the room. Henry covered his head, ducked, expecting not being hit by such mass. But it came to a stop as it landed right between him and the trunk where he found the power cells before.

Morbid fascination took over Henry as he stood there, just watching the lump. It seemed to shift, morphing like a big mass of slime, though it must be just gravity taking over it to make it move rather limp. At least that’s what he thought at first, right before a back oozing hand sprung out of it.

Henry stumbled back, and the dripping hand reached for the floor, gripping it with its... nails? Claws? He couldn’t tell, but it only helped it to crawl closer to the man as another hand sprung out.

Hesitating, but panic surely rising, he clumsily got back in his two feet and with a spin of his heels, he started to race out of there.

Just as he was leaving, a watery gurgle seemed to sound out of the ink pile. Nope! He wouldn’t look back. He needed to get out!

Something seemed to quaver all over the building. The pipes rumbled and leaked in showers, not allowing to get into rooms or hallway. The only way was ahead, and as he made the entrance, an ink waterfall poured right on the entry. Henry recoiled, trying to look somewhere else to go. The foyer was a mess of ink and debris, and he couldn’t go back to where he was, as that lumpy thing/creature–

Speaking of which, he dared to look back there, and he couldn’t help the yelp he released at the sight: no more hands/claws out of a lumpy mass crawling and gliding by the floor, but a leaking, lanky figure, skeletal and mangled, was making its way to where the man had ran away.

 ** _“Gurbl... GuAhh... WaeE...”_** That thing kept gurgling hoarse, and his hunched stand, nearly reaching the floor in all fours, seemed quite painful.

Henry found himself cornered, where else could he go?! No exit, no way out except... The only room that hadn’t been flooded by showers of ink was the new art department.

He turned around and made his way there. A restroom was in there; maybe he could hide until something... someone...!

He made it there, but his so-called hideout was already covered by a wall of falling ink. Henry retreated, looking desperately to... to... Where else could he go again?!

 ** _“GuAEee...PlSszzhh...!”_** That thing was still behind him!

There was nowhere else to go, no run, no hide!

He stopped his retreat when he hit the desk behind. _Now_ he was fully cornered. And that thing was approaching, it was in the same room now!

It moved slowly, step by step, with those watery gurgling it made. It made it pass the railing, just a couple arms away...!

A creaking noise beneath them.

And as if time stopped for them both, they stared to each other; the man forgetting his previous fears but his face drained every ounce of color.

Crack after crack, until the floor simply gave in, sending them booth down below into a dark nothingness.

The fall was so fast that Henry barely had time to notice the creature falling next to him, or even to collect enough air to give a good shout with all the strength of his lungs. Everything around was dark, not a shape he could make out of. He felt like he could be falling forever! But then, he crashed against something, then a lightened room appeared beneath! A circle on the floor? And he could not recall anymore, as darkness consumed once again, only that this time it also consumed all of his senses.

~~~~~~~~~~


End file.
